Maturity Claims

Endowment Plans Table Nos. 14 & 48: The Sum Assured along with the vested Bonus is paid to the policyholder on the date of maturity of the policy. Money back Plans Table Nos. 74, 75, & 93: The final instalment of the survival benefit is paid to the policyholder along with the vested bonuses. Whole Life Plans Table Nos. 2, 5 & 28: By definition, a whole life policy bears no maturity date. Sum Assured along with bonuses are payable only on the life assureds death. However, LICI has made a concession to its valued whole life policyholders; A maturity value is payable on LICIs whole life policies provided the policies run at least 40 years and the assured has crossed 80 years of age. Payment of maturity value terminates the contract of whole life policy. Smart Life Policies (Table Nos. 134 & 135): The sum assured along with the guaranteed additions is paid to the policyholder on the date of maturity of the policy. Aspire Childrens Plans (Table Nos. 601, 602 & 603): The final instalment of the survival benefit/ educational benefit is paid to the policyholder along with the vested bonuses on the policy anniversary falling after the childs attainment of his or her 20th birthday. Requirements: 1. Discharge Voucher form completed, signed and witnessed. 2. Original Policy document to be returned to LICI. IMPORTANT: If the policyholder does not receive his discharge voucher at least one month before the maturity date, he or she must contact LICI office.

choose between the dozens of products, why not check out the claims record of the insurer first? Recent data from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) shows that in 2012-13, life insurers such as DLF Pramerica, Edelweiss Tokio, Aegon Religare, Shriram Life and Future Generali rejected one out of every five claims they received from policyholders. The claims settlement ratio of these insurers was below 80 per cent. The claims settlement ratio is the number of policies on which the insurer has actually paid out any sum towards damages, compared to the number of policies filed in a year. But why do some insurers refuse a good number of claims made by policyholders, while others settle them? Some industry players point to their recent entry into the sector for this. Most insurers have explicit rules which turn down claims made in the first two to three years of a life policy. Yash Mohan Prasad, Head of Sales at Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance, which entered the life insurance business in May 2011, said: For any insurer who is in the initial 2-3 years of operations, the claims settlement ratio would be skewed because of a small base. Even a single rejection can lead to a large impact on the claims ratio, if the base is low. The insurer with the best-in-town claims settlement record is public sector behemoth Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). In 2012-13, it settled 97.7 per cent of the claims its investors made on it, paying out Rs 7,223 crore. This is better than the previous years record of 97.4 per cent.

However, as LICs term plan premia are far more expensive than those of the private insurers, you may want to check out large private insurers too. ICICI Prudential topped private insurers, when it comes to claims settlement, reporting a claims settlement ratio of 96.3 per cent in 201213. Of the total 14,948 claims received, it settled 14,393 and paid out an amount of Rs 293 crore. Others with a record of paying up over 90 per cent are HDFC Standard, SBI Life, MAX Life and Kotak Mahindra Life.